Souvenirs du Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou

If you have modest ability, keep reading. But if you're not comfortable with syncopation, look away now because this is all about rhythm. Taking its name from an International School in Burkina Faso, this is one of our composer's tributes to the place and people, and is part of a suite. The guitars are prepared with a mute under the bridge and the fun begins. Set in 4/4 in E minor, we have a variety of other effects on top of the mutes - tambor, scratching the bass strings for a maracas effect, a rasp up by the tuning pegs, high and low drum sounds. The complexity is almost all down to rhythm. Guitar one goes up to the twelfth position, but once we get above a certain altitude - seventh or thereabouts - the music tends to remain pretty much on the top string. Guitar two goes up to ninth. The other parts stay in first position, but enjoy a greater selection of slaps and bangs in compensation. There is a good amount of guitaristic writing - giving arpeggios a mix of open Bs and 4th finger Bs, or popping an open E into seventh position arpeggio, for example, and careful choice of ligados so that the more extended passages of semiquavers have milestones where the load eases off just a little. In some places, all four forces are playing the same rhythm in glorious, simple but effective chord changes. Elsewhere there are two, three, sometimes four different rhythms all locked together. Well, that's the idea, obviously. The locking together will be the thing that challenges a less-experienced ensemble not only because Guitar Four is absolutely vital in defining the principal beats, but also because here and there Guitar Four is syncopated; this means that the natural place where the forces check for synchronism is temporarily absent. Short enough to be capable of being rehearsed thoroughly in, perhaps, a school setting, the rhythms are evocative and fresh and nothing is complex. Whilst playable by Grade 4 players, I think the need for rhythmic confidence and selfsufficiency will mean that just a little more experience will generate a lot more robustness. Fresh and fun.

Derek Hasted (Classical Guitar Magazine)